We have been geared up and revving together this week as we have explored the fabulous world of technology and machines. In the forest this has looked a little different as we’ve used it to connect with the natural world. We started the week off celebrating National Photography Day. The little ones used our digital cameras to snap pictures of our forest. They made beautiful compositions out of loose parts and even dressed up for a portrait shot in our photo booth!
The next day, we zoomed off to space in our forest rocket. It was fun to explore the power of forces to make things move through our own rocket experiment with bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. The adventurers made their own hypothesis about what would happen before we put the components together and observed the reaction for ourselves. Spoilers, the rocket certainly lifted off! As we thought about space, the children used natural materials like pinecones and acorns to create their own solar system. We compared them to our diagram and then used chalk to match the colours to the planets we liked.
The next machine we met was one that the children couldn’t wait to dive into, literally. With the help of some cardboard boxes, we had lots of fun becoming robots and marching round the forest. We loved exploring shapes through junk modelling our own robots and then creating hanging robot decorations. The children chose their colours, then traced round the rectangles and squares before cutting them out and sticking them together. It was the perfect way to recharge.
We finished our week to discover that some cars had arrived in our forest to be fixed. Our helpful children set up a mechanics garage and winched the car high to get to the undercarriage. Meanwhile, there was a crisis in the petrol station as the connections to the fuel pump were disengaged. That was no problem for our Little Forest Folk-ers either as they soon had that car fixed. We can’t wait to get back on the road again for another host of adventures next week!
Little Forest Folk
Winkworth